September 2015 Frugal Chatter Thread

[Natalka]

Coupongirl - I didn't know that Mark's Work Wearhouse took Scene cards. I only knew to use it at the theatre. Could someone direct me to a link or something so hat I know where else it can be used? Can you only redeem Scene points @ the theatre? We live hours away from a theatre that accepts it & I have lots of points already.

https://www.scene.ca/marks

http://www.marks.com/shop/en/marks/Page?page=SCENE

[coupon girl]

actually my anniversary and birthday are the same day -Tuesday -yes we got married on my birthday(long storey we didn't plan it that way)we had to as hubby started a new job 6 months before we got married and he didn't have any holidays and I love the fall -as I had bad ragweed allergies years ago) -we only went out today -cause son/wife and ashlyn may pop in tuesday night

[Frugalbigmama]

Finally crawled into bed. Had to help/motivate DS to finish assignment that is due tomorrow. It is finished!! Eggs are cooked for breakfast sandwiches and I know what I'm packing for lunches (chicken wraps, apples, etc) laundry all clean and put away so should be a smooth morning. Night all!

[Frugalbigmama]

Happy to report that the free mulch we got May long weekend is finally used. It was in a pile on the patio all summer. My wonderful man finished cleaning the front gardens and spread it out. Looks awesome! Thinking I should take steak out for dinner tomorrow night and we should finish the wine tomorrow night that is open in the fridge

[lizzie bargain]

Well DH and DD finished assembling the bed drawers in DD's room yesterday. So she is quite happy-she no longer needs a dresser taking up floor space in her smallish bedroom. It is a single daybed/couch with drawers underneath for her clothes and a trundle pulls out and makes into a double if she has a girlfriend sleeping over. It cost close to 1/3 of her savings account but she has something tangible that she can take with her when she leaves and it should last for several years. Now I know how SA feels-our house was a mess over the weekend while furniture was moved all over and things were reorganized. DH has a day off today and I work 1.5 hrs this aft doing speech therapy. Afterwards I will pick up DD at school as choir finishes at 5 and guitar lessons start at 5:30. Then band practice tomorrow morning at 7:30-did I mention she loves music? Good to keep them busy at this age I think. She will have band camp at the end of Oct and a band trip to Seattle in April-kerching, kerching!

[lovelikewinter3]

Yes, good plan. It seems to daunting, but if I do it one (or a few) at a time, maybe it won't feel so huge.

Thanks!

You could possibly sell, donate, or give away the books. You could make a list of them and borrow them from the library when you want to read each one.

[Frugalbigmama]

Yipppee! I had moved the big desk from the basement a few weeks ago to the diningroom (I was getting ready to move it to the garage) Decided we didn't need it any more (I bought at a garage sale 5 years ago for $40 and they delivered it to my house for me It was bought in a high end store in Toronto and was like new) I sold it today for $40 ) And now it is out of the diningroom

[Frugalbigmama]

Beautiful day here today again...and I'm at lunch. But my sister is working in town today so we are going to go for a patio lunch. Nice to have an hour alone (without kids, spouses etc)

[jasperandchar]

@MaddensMomma I hope your daughter feels better soon, poor thing Well laundry is washed and hanging outside to dry, last batch of triple chili in the crockpot, washed my hair (haha), did a status update on the budget for September (oy...not to my liking), still need to do dishes. Called tech support at d-link it's all hooked up now but not impressed with the wifi ranges (grr) whole point of replacing the old router. I will test once eldest gets home and is gaming and see how bad or good the signal stands up. My birthday is actually Thursday.

[jasperandchar]

@Frugalbigmama enjoy the lunch with your sister and grown-up talk without the spouse
@lizzie bargain yes I think it's important to keep kids especially teens busy keeps them out of trouble or so we hope

[sotypical]

You had the courage to toss them? I give them to my sister-in-law who takes them to the washroom at work. I guess she has very self-conscious co-workers. I'm still going through some of my paperwork. Today, I tossed some old records. I found my old driving test evaluation, my application and payment for my G2, 2007 taxes, etc. Why do I keep these? I am going to break my poor shredder.

My Mom ended up taking them. But they were on their way to the trash lol. I still have my 2007 taxes! lol

[lizzie bargain]

Popped out this morning-had a $10 gift card at Rexall about to expire and a $10 gift card at Sobeys so I felt like I was shopping for free! Of course I also got an Oct bus pass for DD to ride to school which was $65.00. Last year they were $60 and the school reimbured $19. This year they are $65 with no fee reimbursement-as my husband says whatever happened to a free public education! End of rant!

[coupon girl]

-well hung a laundry load out
-selling my old car privately -some who wants to fix it up -more money for us in our pocket
-see ladies I can share -took car at 11.00 went to bulk barn and shoppers was home by noon hubby neds car for work at 1.15 or 1.30

[sweet sparrow]

I am single but I could never imagine only having 1 car but with that being said my huge concern would be working. I live and work in the boonies, we just finally got bus service here but the area I work in bus only goes every 2 hours and with the hours I work it would just not work for me.

The town where I was born finally had two buses by the time I was in high school. They ran once an hour. Ha ha! I lived right downtown and it took an hour to walk to the outskirts of town in any direction. In that case, I walked everywhere as I figured waiting for the bus (and if you had to walk from the stop at all) pretty much would take just as long.

Now in the big city of over half a million people, the time it takes me to walk to the express bus, wait for the bus, get to the next stop, transfer, wait for the second bus, walk to destination takes me exactly the same amount of time to slowly jog there. So, I don't use the bus four days a week and take the bus on Fridays. Saturdays, I take the car that DH takes to work to get the groceries.

Then when I lived on campus at school or in Toronto, it'd be a bit silly to get a car. It really depends on transit in your area or what you need for work.

Inquiring Minds want to Know!!!

Is your freezer or freezers organized and if so how or what do you do to organize them?????

Nope. No freezer organization at all. Our freezer is about 2 x 3 feet, so it's never been much of an issue.

Digging about 4-6 inches down, and I've decided to sift through it and break up the hard stuff (and throw out all of bunches of roots, big roots, and other useless junk). Then come spring time we'll probably garden claw it up again (to loosen it) throw in a metric tonne of topsoil, and mix that all together, before even beginning to plant things into the ground.

@lovelikewinter3: Where did you find a garden claw? DH wants one, but I'm not sure it's necessary for our postage stamp sized yard. Maybe I should look on kijiji.

How has couponing been for everyone else lately? What other ways are you saving money when it comes to produce, meats and eating healthy in general?

I haven't really used coupons lately but have been since you posted, strangely enough. I used a few for some Triscuits, a few for Dove body wash, a few for Cheerios, one for a sponge. Like others, I don't find many coupons I can use. We try to save money by not buying processed foods, but will wait for a sale if the natives are restless.

Um, I AM that yoga pant grocery shopping wearer lol.

@MaddensMomma: I never said I wasn't the yoga pant wearer. I was just always under the impression that those days would end someday.

@Granger and @saundyl: Great photos! Granger, I hope your DH won't be offended, but from the back he looks like Noel Gallagher. Josie is very cute in her onesie. You've managed to use two baby products I couldn't: a onesie and a wrap. The onesies, LO wouldn't let me pull over her head, and the wrap, I never trusted myself to use safely. I borrowed three from a friend and just held LO all day. I probably should have spent more time on YouTube but I was busy sleeping.

Saundyl, the photos are breathtaking in your area. Lovely photo of you too!

There was a feature on CTV news last night about maintenance of your shredder so that it doesn't burn out the mechanism.

First of all, only use it for half an hour before you let it have a rest. Then, there is a special "lubricating" paper that you buy at a place like Staples. But you can make your own by using vegetable oil on computer paper and running it back and forth through the machine every 30 hoursof use.

This is supposedan to extend the life by about 3X. The instructions for this maintenance is supposedly in the instruction manual you get.

Well, I did successfully cause my shredder to jam. I'd never heard of the lubricant and our shredder never came with a manual (maybe it was a return?). Each time it jams, I just unplug, get the tweezers and pull. When the box is full, I stop because the compost bin is outside and I decide to rest the machine. So far, it's lasted about eight years.

I tend not to shred really old paperwork either. For example, DH's cellphone bills for a business he no longer works at, with an address he lived at over seven years ago for a phone he no longer has, I'll just recycle. If it's anything with personal numbers, I will.

Happy Sunday everyone. We spent the majority of our day at emerg with DD. Diagnosis pneumonia and urinary infection. Poor girl.

I hope she's feeling better.

[sweet sparrow]

My Mom ended up taking them. But they were on their way to the trash lol. I still have my 2007 taxes! lol

Funny, the KonMari book warns against letting moms go through your trash. There's also a part where she advocates NO stockpile at all. If you need something, go buy it. One of her many clients having 35 toothbrushes made it into her book. Ha ha! I think she mentioned someone having 80 rolls of toilet paper and she thought that was ridiculous. If they have packages of 12 rolls, that's just over six. This book will certainly be interesting.